Community Transcription-Eight Months On

Another month, another 42 users…

It’s been eight months now since we opened the War Department archives to community transcription. Way back in March we offered the Scripto transcription tool, and ever since then we have been steadily adding finished documents to our archive. What started with just a dozen or so volunteers has grown into an active, vigorous community of volunteer transcribers.

We offer here another snapshot at our transcription activity.

To date, we have 398 users-approximately 77 of them have transcribed within the last 90 days-this is actually a few more than this time last month. Those transcribers have made more than 2,395 saves to War Department Documents, which is about 150 more than last month. That translates to approximately 580 finished documents, along with another 162 documents begun. Editors have nominated an additional 175 for transcription. Additionally, transcribers have initiated approximately 145 conversations using the “talk” feature.

Our transcribers truly represent a cross-section of life: we have university professors, genealogists, students, editors, librarians, historical re-enactors, museum curators, and many other kinds of folks transcribing. There are transcribers from nearly every American state, from the Seneca Nation, Australia, and from the Creek Nation. Their interests range from personal research, to genealogy, to professional projects. Some of our transcribers had extensive experience with historical documents when they began; for others, this is their first encounter with two hundred-year old letters and handwriting. Many of our transcribers have only worked on a few documents, but several have transcribed dozens of them.

As we continue forward with the project, users may still register for a transcription account.